________________________ Spreading the Love of Reading One Book at a Time _______________________
This blog is for anyone whoever picked up a book and couldn't put it down. It's for anyone who loves to read and reads often. It's for anyone like me who's been seduced by a book and can't wait to discuss it.

My Picks for April

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

The Hidden Legacy series by #1 New
York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews continues as Nevada and Rogan
navigate a world where magic is the norm . . . and their relationship burns
hot.

Nevada Baylor
has a unique and secret skill—she knows when people are lying—and she's used
that magic (along with plain, hard work) to keep her colorful and close-knit
family's detective agency afloat. But her new case pits her against the shadowy
forces that almost destroyed the city of Houston once before, bringing Nevada
back into contact with Connor "Mad" Rogan.

Rogan is a
billionaire Prime—the highest rank of magic user—and as unreadable as ever,
despite Nevada's "talent." But there's no hiding the sparks between
them. Now that the stakes are even higher, both professionally and personally,
and their foes are unimaginably powerful, Rogan and Nevada will find that
nothing burns like ice.

“Ilona Andrews" is the pseudonym for a
husband-and-wife writing team. Ilona is a native-born Russian and Gordon is a
former communications sergeant in the U.S. Army. Contrary to popular belief,
Gordon was never an intelligence officer with a license to kill, and Ilona was
never the mysterious Russian spy who seduced him. They met in college, in
English Composition 101, where Ilona got a better grade. (Gordon is still sore about
that.) They have co-authored two New York Times and USA Today bestselling
series—the urban fantasy of Kate Daniels and the romantic urban fantasy of The
Edge—and are working on the next volumes for both. They live in Texas with
their two children and many dogs and cats.

“She’s my light. She found me in
the darkest time of my life and she saw something in me . . . She believed I
could be a better man. I didn’t deserve her or the happiness we had. She loved
me, Nevada. She loved me so much, in spite of my faults, and I was the luckiest
man alive because when I opened my eyes in the morning, I saw her next to me.
She had integrity. She was kind and intelligent, and she tried her hardest to
do the right thing so this world would be a better place for our child to grow
up in. She didn’t deserve this. She deserved to be happy. She deserved a full
and long life. Nobody had the right to rob her of it.”

His face contorted with raw pain and
grief. I was trying so hard not to cry. “I love her determination. I love her
spirit. I’m proud to have been her husband. And now she’s dead. Someone took
this wonderful—this truly beautiful—human being and turned her into a corpse. I
saw her on the morgue table. She’s just . . . cold and lifeless as if she never
was. Everything is gone except for our daughter and my memories. I have to
strive to be the man she thought I was. When my daughter grows up, she’ll ask
me why her mother was murdered and I’ll have to answer her. I have to account
for my actions. I want to tell her that I found those responsible and I made
sure they wouldn’t hurt anyone else.”

He brushed moisture from his eyes with a
furious swipe of his hand. “Nobody else will do this. Her family doesn’t have
the means, my family doesn’t care, and her employer might have murdered her.
There is only me. Will you help me? Please.”

He fell silent. He was sitting here
asking for my help and I couldn’t throw him out of my office. I just couldn’t. I
remembered when Mom sold our house to pay for Dad’s bills. I remembered when we
mortgaged the business and kept it from him, because it would’ve killed him
faster than any disease. If someone I loved was murdered, I would do the same
thing Cornelius did. He had nowhere to turn. If I slammed the door in his face
now, I wouldn’t be able to look my reflection in the eye.

I reached into the top drawer of my desk
and took out the blue new-client folder. I opened it so it faced him, placed it
on the table, and wrote $50,000 in the margins on the front. “This is my
retainer. This stays with the agency no matter what happens. It’s
nonnegotiable.”

I used my pen to circle the bottom
number on the right side. “These are our rates. This job is likely to be
high-risk, so the top rate right here will apply. As you can see, it’s a daily
and not hourly rate. Depending on the situation, I may have to charge you
hazard pay or additional expenses. The retainer acts like a deductible. Once
the amount billed to you exceeds it, you will make additional payments in installments
of $10,000. After we’re done here, you may want to go to the bank and withdraw
at least $20,000 in cash. We may have to bribe people . . .”

“Thank you.”

“This is a bad idea. Please reconsider.”

He shook his head. “No.”

I walked him through the privacy policy
and had him sign all of the waivers. “What happens once we find whoever is
responsible?”

“I’ll take care of things from there.”

“Meaning you’ll kill your wife’s
murderer.”

“It’s the way Houses handle things,”
Cornelius said.

“Well, I’m not a House. I’m a person
with a family, and I respect and try to obey the laws of this country. I won’t
hesitate to defend you or myself, but I won’t condone murder.”

“Understood,” Cornelius said. “How do we
start?”

“I need to be able to speak to Matthias
Forsberg. I need face-to-face time so I can ask him some questions. I can make
the necessary calls tomorrow, but he’ll refuse to see me.”

“You don’t have the social status and
you work for his competitor.” Cornelius nodded. “Matthias is an active participant
in the Assembly. He never misses a session. Tomorrow happens to be December
15th. The session starts at 9:00 a.m.”

“I don’t have admission to the
Assembly.” The Assembly was an unofficial executive body that governed the magic
users at state and national levels. The Texas State Assembly met in Houston. A
family had to have at least two Prime-caliber magic users in three generations
to be considered a House and each House had a single seat. Technically the
Assembly had no power within the US government, but, practically, when the
Houses spoke in one collective voice, both Congress and the White House
listened.

“A family name has to be good for
something, right?”

Cornelius smiled. It never reached his
eyes. They stayed bitter and haunted. “As a Significant and a scion of a House,
I’m free to attend the Assembly and bring a companion of my choice. I intend to
be an active participant in this investigation, Ms. Baylor.”

Title:White Hot (Hidden Legacy)Classification: Adult FictionGenre: Urban FantasySeries: Hidden LegacyFormat: Hardcover; 352 pagesPublisher: Avon (May 30, 2017)ISBN-10: 006267479XISBN-13: 978-0062674791Author's Website: http://www.ilona-andrews.com/Notes: I received an eARC loan from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I am also an Avon Addict which means I love the books that Avon publishes enough to volunteer to read as many ARCs and books as they can send my way. So you'll be seeing a lot of books reviewed by me from this publisher. Please note, however, that if I don't like a book, it will be truthfully reflected by a low rating.

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A century and a half ago, the Osiris serum was discovered by scientists which unlocked a person's magical abilities. The serum was given to soldiers so that wars could be won, but scientists didn't comprehend what they'd truly done until much later and by then it was too late. The serum was locked away, but the damage had been done because it was soon found that magical talents could be passed from parent to child. The world as we knew it was changed forever as a restructuring of power occurred. Money no longer guaranteed power, influence, and prestige in this magically oriented new world, rather, one's magical abilities did. For from the power of magic, one could acquire the rest.

Talents varied among people, but each person showed potential toward one specific type of magic. Among the varying types of magics, ranges of talent were soon noted and magic users were categorized into five different ranks: Minor, Average, Notable, Significant, and Prime. The highest and strongest being Prime. Soon magical dynasties, as the most powerful of magical families came to be called, were broken into houses and attempted to manipulate and enhance their family's magical potential by arranging marriages which would bring about the most gifted and talented of offspring.

Nevada Baylor is a private eye working for the family business--Baylor Investigative Agency. The firm specializes in small-time investigations. She's just been hired to help Cornelius Harrison of House of Harrison find his wife killer. Normally they wouldn't take a case this big. Nevada decided to make an exception.

On Tuesday night, Nari Harrison, and three of her colleagues, all lawyers from Forsberg Investigative Services, entered Hotel Sha Sha. Minutes later they left in body bags each riddled with bullets. Nari had called Cornelius earlier to say she'd be working late, but gave no specifics. House Forsberg claims whatever she was doing at the hotel was not work related. Cornelius wants her killer brought to justice. specifically, his type of justice. He's hiring Nevada to find out what happened and who is responsible. Nevada may be delving into a Pandora's Box because whatever it is that went down is without a doubt something bad or House Forsberg would not be trying to cover it up.

This is the second story of the Hidden Legacy series and I'm hoping what I read at the end is wrong. It said 'Wildfire', the third book in the series, will be the conclusion of the series,er, trilogy. SAY WHAT???? NO!!!! Please, say it ain't so.

This book takes place two months from where 'Burn For Me' left off and in that time Nevada hasn't heard from Rogan. She now feels justified in telling him she wouldn't be his mistress, but that doesn't keep her from missing the big jerk. Once she's on the track of Nari Harrison's murderer it's just her luck that Rogan would once again cross her path and the two once again find themselves teaming up. I loved the sexual tension between these two and I can't wait to see where the third book will take them.

Nevada is still discovering what she can do with her powers, and her abilities are getting stronger. Soon she won't be able to keep her particular talent under wraps. Cornelius, her client, has some surprising powers of his own. I don't want to say too much about this book because I'll start entering into the land of spoilers, but let me just say the series just keeps getting better and better. I kept being pleasantly surprised by twists and turns.The story was extremely well crafted and if you haven't started the series, you really need to.

So what are Gordon and Ilona's response to whether or not 'Wildfire' is indeed the last book of the series?

"It depends on sales. There was a significant break between the releases and paranormal/UF is in decline, so the deck is stacked against it. We’ll know next week, when the first sales numbers come in, if this series is alive or dead. But…If the sales numbers suck and the publisher will not want more books, we will still write at least one more and self-publish. We won’t leave you hanging. 🙂" *

So if you want this series to continue please pick up a copy and buy it. I did even before reading the above.

If you haven't already figured it out, I gave this one 5 out of 5 roses. I love how we keep learning more about the inner workings of the Hidden Legacy world, and the powers the people possess. The chemistry between Nevada and "Mad" Rogan is scorchingly hot. Plus, I adore seeing the family dynamics between not only Nevada and her family, but those in the Houses as well. Dare I say I like it more than Ilona's Kate Daniels series? Okay, I confess, once I read the next book of the Kate Daniels series I'll totally be switching sides because I do, in fact, love them both and whichever one is current will most likely be my fave (Yeah, I'm fickle that way). On the Lisarenee Romance Rating Scale this one earned a STEAM--too hot for a fan, but you still have a handle on things. You should use extreme caution when reading a book with this rating in public. People may inquire as to why you looked flustered and flushed. Now picture me trying to use some mind power on you that surely someone in the Hidden Legacy series has as I keep repeating....."Buy the Hidden Legacy books. Buy the Hidden Legacy books." I really don't want this one to end so if you like the series join the SOS campaign--Save Our Series! lol

Notes to Keep You in the Know:
* Have some questions about the series or why something happened in the book? Check out Ilona Andrews' answer section on their website : http://www.ilona-andrews.com/all-the-answers/ It is well worth your time and where I found the answer to whether or not the series will continue.